After the game at Dens Park, the manager gave his reaction:
“I thought we had an excellent start and really imposed ourselves on the game. I thought Dundee played like the away team by coming off the game and I thought the only time we were really threatened today was when we were guilty of giving away cheap possession.
“Given the manner that we set out to play I think we got a deserved goal and it was a great goal as Rooney showed great strength, real tenacity and ability to get the ball into the net. I thought we were in charge of the game, we had umpteen set-plays but we have been here before, certainly against Dundee, where we have been guilty of not making more of the opportunities.
“It was such a pivotal moment in the game and it was a blatant penalty but it’s not all down to the referee that we haven’t won the game today.
“We were still in a good position at 1-0 going into the second half and we told the players at half time that the pitch was difficult and that it was important that our movement and your use of the ball was proper. I thought we were a bit ponderous in the second half and we gave Dundee encouragement.
“I didn’t think Dundee would give us too many problems but they have been punished by a mistake and from then on in I thought once they had got their equaliser they were worthy of the point as we never really threatened again after that.
“After the goal they got a spring in their step and a belief that they could get something but up to that point it was the opposite. We looked like the team that was going to win the game but Dundee got encouragement from our sloppiness, lack of tempo and lack of thought about where to play the game.
“I don’t even think it was just the final ball, our first ball could have been better today.
“The first half we worked the ball into good areas but in the second half we were more guilty of playing a lot of short passes and trying to work the ball up the pitch. You have got to adapt. You have got to adapt to the opposition, the conditions and I thought we allowed ourselves more problems by playing at the wrong end of the pitch at times.
“We were guilty of quite a few mistakes in the second half and we have been punished for it. I still think as a team we should be doing a lot better than we did and we shouldn’t be putting the game to risk. The mistake at the goal probably epitomises us trying to play the game in the wrong area of the pitch.
“It’s going to be a long two weeks now, obviously we have got Andy’s testimonial game next week but it is still raw as it’s a game where we feel like we have tossed away two points. We just need to re-charge and get game time into some of the boys with the testimonial and the U20 match next week and come back fighting and be better over 90 minutes. We had 45 minutes against Motherwell and we had 45 minutes against Dundee today. The difference for me was that Motherwell really imposed themselves on the game and played their part in helping the game go their way, I thought we played our part today in letting Dundee back into the game.”
REDTV | The manager’s post match press conference in full | please click here
REDTV | Adam Rooney | please click here REDTV | Andrew Driver | please click here
REDTV | Adam Rooney | please click here REDTV | Andrew Driver | please click here
